Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-06-19
THU ROMANCE On A BOTTLE.
lMncyuillan,l


spread its gsunt unshapen length alorg
the southern wall OF tho neglected gar
den, had been given over to the old
man that he might divert himself In 1T
o. he pleased without fear of domestic
invasion. Evidently il was a place
where the intrudipg foot of wife or
housckeepcr WAS never suffered "A
forlorn, disordered place dark, too,
for the great window was all
smirched and blind with dust,
and scraps of paper, with queer,
cahalis,ic devices were struck over the
lower panos, end rains showers charged
with SCOT had blurred IT till It was now
almost opaque. IL was long and
lofty room. Here and there the walls
were sreared with rude, groteSque
sketches, which remained to satlriZe
the memory OF the late proprietor, as
his genius had expressed itself IN ms
idlost or most fantastic moods. The
dim corners we're spun oil across with
cobwebs dark blotches of some long
dried chemical iluid. like Old
blood stains. showed upon the bare
flooring. and little ridge OF dust on
either side of a smooth path some two
and a half feet wide. running the
length of the eastern wall, marked the
course trodden 10y the old man when
he paced his workshop in thought or
meditation. The rest of the floor was
covered by a fine layer of dust.
The old man himself was Just the
kind Of old man whom you would have
expected to find in such IA place. The
brown and wrinkled skin was stretched
tightly over his forehead and the upper
mart of his skull. which assembled to
sort of blunted point, thin. irregul
fringe. too pale TO be called gray, too
faded 10 be white. circled his head on
level with the ears, and gave HIM so
far the air of an aged and withered
monk. There was still certain bold
ness in the forehead, but the eye
brovs that had been full and bushy
had becom. mere ragged and colorleSs
tufts. The mouth retained little OF
its native frmnesS, though the loss OF
the teeth had deprived it of half of It's
character, but what powers of express
sion and what show Of intellect had
vanished from the other features seemed
10 have concentrated themselves chiefly
in the ewes. from which there radiatCd
n light of almost unnatural brilliancy.
An eacerncss. a curiosity. and pain
full restlessncsS glittered III them, and
they appeared never to take in the hall
Of what they lOnged to see.
This old man was an alchemist-pro-
- l. =. 81 e
A long line and curious is the line
Of the alchcmists. At the head of ii
We may place Hermes Trismegistus,
the Egyptian, concerning whom so lit
tie is known that We need not hesitate
to accept the conjecture of his bog
raphCr that at a certain period OF his
life he died Some would assign PR
oritv Of date TO ZofimuS the Panophte.
who said that one could make gold out
Of lead if one went the right way to
work, and who may have been Chan
cellor of the EXchequer IN a Govern
mcnt whose pecuniary resources were
waning.
The old alchemist in the studio had
triod honestly in his day to make gold
ont Of lead and ont of stones, plants,
and Heaven knows what other things;
he rad his powder of projection in his
metals, his cIucible, his furnace, and
poker of the proper sort, like the other
alchemists: but he had not made any
gold. Ten fIuitlesS years he had spent
IN the endcayor to produce 1t by tech
meal and pre- scribed processes OF sepa-
ration. Of matuation, and OF trans
mutation and then, on day
in bright midvinter, it flashed
upon him with the dazzle and
shock Of inspiration that the thing
which, above all things else, 1t behooved
him TO discover and make perfect for
the good Of himself and his fellow-men
was that grand and infallible dissolvent
Of Paracelsus and Van Helmont, the
true and only elixir, which conferred
Immortality On lnortals.
There could he no doubt that both
these eminent persons had discovered
it for themselves, since they both said
as much in their writings. The trou-
bic was that neither Of them had
thought fit TO transmit the secret to
posteTlty.
Line by line the old man pondered
all that had been written by, and on
account of, Paracelsus and Van Hell
mont. He read besides the extensive
and somewhat nebulous wOrksof Gebir,
Morienous, Roger Bacon, Lully, Count
Trevisanus, Sendivogius, Basil Nalen-
tine. Trendus, Philalethes, and some
two hundred and fourteen others.
Day by day, amid a shadowy silence
that would have oppressed a
student less utterly absorbed, the
old man read between the yell
low covers Of those frowsy, ingenious
volumes. Often from dawn to dark,
and far on into the night, not a sound
wonld be heard in the chamber save
the rustic of the leaves as he turned
them over one by one. None visited
him. none saw him, or had word OF
him. He sat alone, amid the ghosts OF
a hundred generations of alchemlSts
whom he had summoned from the
yasty deep to teach him that secret OF
life which death had taught to them.
Yet. amid the dusliy stiffness of that
dead chamber, there was llieless
thing that seemed 10 WatcD, no" hlpcA-
ingly, and now in sympathy, the lean,
rapt figure of the alchemist.
This thing that had no life ID 1t was
bottle-a PLAIN narrow-nccked vessel
Of pale Green glass, which spirit-mer,-
chants had been once wont to fill with
some extravagant liquor. You cannot
sunound with the feeblest halo OF TO
nance a bottle such as this. II had
stood AT the elbow of the host on sup
per.tables. Walters with napkins on
their arms had placed it there at the
eleventh hour, and guests who had
previously drank their fill OF other
liquors had welcomed il rs an aid and
stimulus to digestion. What irony OF
circumstance had caused this bottle.
when emptied last, to be transported
here. 10 the studio of an aged alche-
mist than whom no Nazarite had more
vigorously abstained from elevating
drink?
MANY bottles OF various shapes stood
about upon the floor, most OF which
contained some dark and subtle poison